Egg cartons



July 29, 1969 w, HQWARTH ET AL 3,458,108

EGG CARTONS Filed May 31. 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 July 29, 1969 w, ow m- ET AL 3,458,108

EGG CARTONS Filed May 31, 1967 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 1320382308 0: 6123 0111211 d1.'2zou, 1 1423 0111 WW HIIIbwaflifi,

July 29, 1969 w HOWARTH ET AL 3,458,108

EGG CARTONS Filed May 31. 1967 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 683411 (H 1581010, Hwow fl.flougiai,y,

WaZiiea H.Howa8fi2/, by flifomazey United States Patent G 3,458,108 EGG CARTONS Walter H. Howarth, Portland, Gerald A. Snow, Cumberland Foreside, and Harold A. Doughty, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, assiguors to United Industrial Syndicate, Inc., doing business as Portland Company Division of United Industrial Syndicate, Inc., Portland, Maine, a corporation of New York Filed May 31, 1967, Ser. No. 642,002 Int. Cl. 365d 85/32 US. Cl. 229-25 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Egg cartons each having its bottom formed with rows of egg-receiving pockets with the walls of the pockets including structure defining a series of posts between the rows, the cover having depending rib structure to seat on post structure, the rib structure dividing the upper part of the carton to prevent ocntact of eggs on opposite sides of the rib structure without blocking the fiow of air between the opposite sides, and the cover rear wall and the locking flap desirably having pocket-defining portions projecting inwardly of the carton when it is closed.

While cartons in accordance with the invention are adapted for use in the packaging of other fragile articles, the invention is herein discussed with particular reference to egg cartons.

One of the problems in marketing eggs is that an egg carton must have suflicient strength to support appreciable weight on its cover, such as occurs when cartons are stacked, and prevent the upper parts of the eggs from coming in contact during the handling of the carton. At the same time, air circulation through cartons is desirable.

The general objective of the invention is to provide egg cartons that will meet the above indicated requirements and this objective is attained by providing a formed carton with a cover having hollow, depending rib structure engageable, when the carton is closed, with postdefining structure located between rows of pockets to so divide the upper part of the closed carton as to prevent contact of the eggs on opposite sides of the rib structure without blocking the flow of air between said opposite sides.

Another objective of the invention is to provide rib structure extending either lengthwise or transversely of the center of a carton or in both directions.

A particular objective is to provide an egg carton of the type having egg-receiving pockets arranged in two rows of six each and with the rib structure having two ribs spaced from the ends of the cover and from each other with each engageable with two posts.

Another objective of the invention is to provide an egg carton of the above type with a transverse central rib, either by itself or with other ribs, the carton being adapted to be separated transversely to provide two sections, the separation dividing the central transverse rib so that it provides end walls for each section.

Another objective of the invention is to provide the locking flaps and cover rear walls with projections extending inwardly of the carton, when closed, to define and establish in the cover, upper boundaries of the pockets. Yet another objective of the invention is to provide the locking flap with recesses that constitute a part of the boundaries in the upper part of a closed carton.

In the accompanying drawings, there are shown illustrative embodiments of the invention from which these and other of its objectives, novel features, and advantages will be apparent.

3,458,108 Patented July 29, 1969 In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of an egg carton in accordance with the invention, the carton being closed,

FIGURE 2 is a view of the carton as seen from the front,

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the carton,

FIGURE 4 is a section, on an increased scale, taken approximately along the indicated lines 44 of FIG- URE 1,

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of the carton opened to show the interior surfaces of its bottom, cover, and locking flap,

FIGURE 6 is a section taken approximately along the indicated lines 6-6 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 7 is a top plan view of an egg carton in accordance with another embodiment of the invention,

FIGURE 8 is a section taken approximately along the indicated lines 8-8 of FIGURE 7, and

FIGURE 9 is a section taken approximately along the indicated lines 9-9 of FIGURE 7.

The egg cartons shown in the drawings are adapted to be formed desirably from a plastic and are of the type shown in the copending application of Gerald A. Snow and Harold A. Doughty, Ser. No. 606,118, filed Dec. 30, 1966.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated by FIG- URES 1-6, the egg carton has an egg-receiving and containing bottom, a cover, and a locking flap, generally indicated at 10, 11, and 12, respectively. A generally indicated hinge 13 integrally joins the cover 12 to the rear edge of the bottom 10 and a generally indicated hinge 14 integrally joins the locking flap 12 to the front edge thereof.

The carton bottom 10 has a plurality of pockets generally indicated at 15 and shown as arranged in two rows of six each with the wall structure of the pockets establishing a plurality of posts 16 between the two rows, each post 16 common to four pockets 15. The formation of the pocket wall structure provides webs or shelves 17 between the pockets along the front and back of the carton bottom 10, shelves 18 at the ends of both the front and back side, and upwardly projecting web portions between the rows at each end, which and the posts 16 extend above the plane of the shelves 17 and 18 which plane is the upper surface of the bottom 10. The wall structures between adjacent pockets 15 are recessed as at 20.

The cover 11 has a top wall 21 and integral, outwardly and downwardly sloping front, rear, and end Walls 22, 23, and 24, respectively, of a height such that there is space in the carton, when the cover is closed, for the upper portions of eggs supported in the pockets 15. Each cover end wall 24 includes a marginal flange 25, recessed as at 26 with the recesses defining ventilating slots when the cover is closed and with the portions 19 being in cover-supporting engagement centrally thereof.

The front wall 22 of the cover is shown as having three outwardly disposed projections 27, each of substantial length and providing an in ernal shou der 28 below the top wall 21 of the cover 11. The projections 27 are spaced a short distance from the ends of the Wall 21 and from each other and between them there are holes 29, each adapted to receive an appropriate one of the outwa dly disposed locking projections 30 with which the locking flap 12 is provided.

The locking flap 12 has a series of outwardly disposed spaced projections arranged as pairs. The projections are indicated at 31 and 32, th projections 32 being at opposite ends of the flap 12. Each pair of projections fits within the appropriate one of the recesses provided by the cover projections 27 with their upper edges engageable with the shoulders 28 thereof and with the wall structure between them and between the pairs thereof projecting into the interior of the carton to define upper boundaries between egg receiving pockets 15. In order to ensure adequate space for the eggs, the inner surface of each projection 31, 32 has a vertical groove or channel 33 transversely alined with the center of the adjacent pocket 15 so that the interior flap 12 also functions to define upper outer boundaries of egg pockets adjacent thereto.

The rear cover wall 23 similarly has longitudinally spaced, inward projections 34 which stiffen it and seat on the adjacent shelves 17 when the cover 11 is closed thus also to function as upper boundaries between adjacent pockets 15.

The cover 11 has a pair of depending, hollow ribs 35 extending lengthwise centrally thereof, the ribs 35 being spaced from each other and from the ends of the cover. The ribs 35 stiffen the cover and are sufficiently narrow so that they do not seriously restrict the printing area. The ribs 35 are dimensioned to engage with posts when the cover is closed and, accordingly, terminate short of the plane of the edges of the cover as will be apparent from FIGURES 4 and 6. In the embodiment of the invention illustrated by FIGURES 1-6, the ends of each rib 35 taper downwardly towards each other thus to engage a pair of posts 1 6 and to block contact of the eggs between the transversely alined pockets at its ends, see FIGURE 6. It is apparent that the ribs 35 thus serve to protect the eggs as well as providing stiffness to the vertical reinforcement of the cover without interference with ventilation.

As the embodiment of the invention illustrated by FIGURES 7-9 is smilar to that just described, it will not be detailed but corresponding parts are indicated by the addition of the suffix addition A to the appropriate corresponding reference numerals.

In this embodiment of the invention, a depending, hollow rib 36 extends transversely of the center of the carbon and is dimensioned to rest on a post 16A with its ends downwardly and inwardly inclined towards each other and spaced from the cover walls 32A and 23A thus to prevent contact between eggs at its ends on opposite sides without interfering with air circulation lengthwise of the carton. Score lines 37 are provided to facilitate the separation of the carton into halves and these run lengthwise and centrally of the rib 36 so that on such separation, a half of the rib 36 functions as an end closure for the separated half carton.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that egg cartons in accordance with the invention are well adapted to meet the requirements attendant their use without the introduction of manufacturing problems that might limit their acceptance.

We claim:

1. A molded carton comprising a bottom including front, rear, and side walls and a plurality of egg receiving pockets arranged in parallel rows with the walls of the pockets including structure providing a series of posts between the rows, a cover including a top and depending front, side and rear walls, the rear cover and base walls being integrally and hingedly interconnected, and means to detachably connect the front wall of the cover to the bottom, said cover top wall including depending, hollow, rib structure extending lengthwise thereof and engageable with posts, at least when the cover is under a load, said rib structure being sufficiently narrow to provide substantially linear contact with the posts centrally thereof without encroachment into the space normally occupied by the upper end portions of eggs seated in the pockets when the carton is closed thereby to provide linear bracing of the cover and a barrier against movement of eggs in one row into contact with eggs in the adjacent row.

2. The molded carton of claim 1 in which there are two rows of six egg pockets and five posts, and the depending rib structure includes two portions whose proximate ends are spaced apart above the central post, each end of each portion of the rib structure tapering downwardly towards the appropriate one of the two underlying posts.

3. The molded carton of claim 2 in which the rib structure also includes a portion extending transversely over the central post when the cover is closed, the ends of the transverse portion of the rib structure taper downwardly and inwardly approximately to the center line of the row of pockets that is subjacent when the carton is closed without encroachment into the space then normally occupied by the upper portions of eggs seated in the adjacent pockets.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,061,064 11/1936 De Reamer.

2,100,516 11/1937 Read 229-2.5 2,285,129 6/1942 Schwartzberg 2292.5 2,455,295 11/ 1948 Cox.

2,978,162 4/1961 Lambert 2292.5 3,145,895 8/1964 Reifers 229-2.5 3,285,491 11/1966 Bessett 229-2.5

DAVIS T. MOORHEAD, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

